Good morning, dear blog readers! I want to first take a minute for a bit of a personal message to thank you all for your continued support, encouragement, and visits during this long remodeling process. I've been blogging for quite a few years now with lots of projects and challenges along the way and I realize this cottage transformation is a slow one, but a transformation, none-the-less. As crazy as this may sound, I believe this house - this normal little house in a normal, not-so-charming neighborhood, longs to be a cottage with all it's heart and I'm determined Thank you for being there every step of the way. to make it just that. "Will it ever really be a cottage?", I ask hubs in my moments of uncertainty. "Yes it will. I promise." he always replies. The little house that could, despite the odds and likelihood that something different...something sweet and homey or even charming...could pop up on my not so sweet, homey, or charming street unexpectedly like a wild flower in a desert. The road ahead is a long one, with more challenges I'm sure, but I suppose that's why I call it a transformation journey. Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is...Thank You from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me and coming along with me on this journey. Thank you for being there every step of the way. I so enjoy sharing our experiences with you, the good and the bad, and I look forward to sharing with you for a long time to come!

Now to the kitchen ceiling! Our kitchen/dining room ceiling was once covered with a type of plaster-esque finish that really kind of almost made my stomach turn. It was as if it were an attempt to imitate a cottage cheese/popcorn ceiling finish. Let's be honest here...it was badly done and it was ugly.

What is more is that one could see where the dining room and kitchen additions were added, just by looking at the ceiling. See what I mean?

I knew that whatever solution we came up with, it needed to be inexpensive and it needed to add some cottage charm to the space. And it needed to be easy!

So we decided to go with tung and groove pine planks bought from Lumber Liquidators. I believe we paid around 1.60 a square foot for our pine, but you can get it for as little as .99 a square foot depending on exactly what you buy. Our pine is 3/4 of an inch thick and somewhere between 5 and 6 inches wide. Check out some of the Lumber Liquidators pine plank options and prices here.} Did you ever think that pine planks could be so cheap? The caption below is a little deceiving, I just realized...the planks do not come already primed...by "pre-primed", I meant before being primed...

We did prime and also paint a couple of coats on our planks before we installed them. This not only helped save our necks but painting the "tung" part of the planks is very important because when the planks expand and contract, you won't see unsightly raw wood in the cracks. {After the installation, we also painted by brush a couple more coats. Brushing as opposed to rolling creates a nice, smooth finish.}

Did I mention we needed our ceiling project to be easy? Scraping {or rather sanding} off all that plaster would not have been easy. Applying the tung and groove planks on top of the plaster was easy. Very easy. Before beginning, we needed to determine where the studs in the ceiling were so that we would know where to nail. The blue lines you see represent where the studs are. We decided that we wanted beams in our kitchen, so we just butted the ends of the planks together and would cover them with the beams. If you don't want beams or a long run of seams, just stagger your planks as you would hardwood flooring. And just as with hardwood flooring, make sure you leave a bit of a gap between the planks and the walls to allow for expansion.

We face nailed {nailed through the surface of} our tung and groove planks to the existing ceiling - at the studs - with a nail gun and just puttied the little holes later.

Hubs made these box beams by first attaching a vertical piece right over the seams. He next attached a side piece, followed by the bottom piece, and lastly, the other side piece.

Here you see a beam before the final piece was attached.

To cover the gaps between wall and the planks, we added crown moulding. Those nifty corner pieces made the job much easier!

If you click on the photo and enlarge it, you'll see that we added small trim pieces to cover any gaps left between the beams and the ceiling.

The beams all primed out...

And then painted along with the trim and ceiling! We used a pure white in a gloss finish.

Later we added the flooring - shine on the floor, shine on the ceiling!

As inexpensive as this treatment is, we will be adding it throughout our entire house - room by room. Hoorah for easy and inexpensive projects!

If you enjoyed reading about this project, please take a moment to rate it for a contest I've entered. Just scroll to the bottom where it says "rollover to rate this" and click on a star - 5 stars being the highest rating and 1 star being the lowest. I am so grateful to all those that have rated my spaces so far - Thank you!

Your kitchen is beautiful!! May I ask you, or maybe you have already said...where did you get your lights over your sink and island? I really love them and we're building a home. I'm wanting something similar. Thank you so much.blessings, Fine Linen

That ceiling makes all the difference! Thansk for the how-to. I am helping a friend remodel a farmhouse for use as a counseling office and this has given me ideas. I've always loved the look of ceilings like this---so much better than popcorn.

We have cottage cheese ceilings also. I want to do just what you have done to your kitchen ceiling. Thanks so much for the wonderful tutorial. You are a decorating genius. I almost get goosebumps when I see your kitchen transformation!

There's nothing better than making a popcorn ceiling go buh-bye! I looked at a condo only a handful of years ago that was brand spanking new...and as soon as I walked in the door BOOM! popcorn ceilings. In new construction! Who DOES that? Your solution is beyond a good one!!

I'm not kidding, I had a dream that I lived in a house with cottage cheese ceilings. I woke up and was like "why in the heck would I have a dream about cottage cheese ceilings???" Now I know, it must have been from your blog posts! Your new plank ceilings are amazing!!! Love everything you guys do.

Those "beams" are genius! My husband and I would LOVE to plank our ceiling someday, and we weren't sure what we were going to do for beams. Great idea! I am SO excited now! Isn't the price of that pine great! We're going to be able to do our whole house with it for around 3 grand! I wanted reclaimed wood, but of course it is super expensive, so when I discovered that unfinished pine at Lumber Liquidators, I was so excited, cause I knew that it would scratch and ding easily, and it wouldn't take long until I had an old looking floor for a lot less dollars!!

It is always the most fun for me to come by and see what you are doing with your "normal" house since I have one as well. You did make painting all that wood sound easy! You and your hubby have put in such an amazing amount of work. And it shows. Beautifully. Bravo on the new ceilings!Donna

The ceiling is such a beautiful finishing touch. This is the first time I realized you used a glossy finish on the ceiling. We did that on the beadboard ceiling in the dining room and although the people at the paint store thought I was nuts, I just love it! Thanks for the tutorial on the beams, I'd like to do that in my living room and the instructions were so helpful. Keep your chin up on this remodel, although it seems slow, it's becoming the cottage you dreamt it always could be.~Michelle

I think this might be the single most important project in turning your house into the cottage it wants to be. Mine wants to be a cottage too (in a sea of stucco boxes) and I've been pushing the hubs toward panelled ceilings for years. This post of yours has been saved to my favorites and will be required reading (for him) before we begin! Thanks so much for all the information and great inspiration!

A ray of hope in the world of textured ceilings. Hooray! Question: how high are your ceilings? Our 'starburst' pattern ceilings are the standard 8 ft low and I am afraid that adding the planks would make it feel clausterphobic - but I love the look! We just added beadboard planking to our front porch ceiling and it is a huge improvement.

That ceiling looks amazing! I would love to use it somewhere in my home. One of these days I'll get to work on things for my home instead of the homes of others! Thanks for continuing to share your reno journey with us. I never get tired of pictures o your kitchen.

That is a really, really great idea. When I read the title, I totally expected to read about sanding, sanding & more sanding. But, I like your method & results way more!Kimwww.vintagepretties.typepad.com

Love your ceiling so much. Isn't that funny, to love a ceiling? We have ridiculously high vaulted ones so I can't do anything fabulous like you did. I can't even paint my living room without scaffolding. And I'm not climbing on any scaffolding in this lifetime, ha.

Oh my goodness! I cannot tell you how much I love this! We have popcorn on our ceilings that was painted over, and my husband can not get it off. I have been wanting to do this so bad..maybe if I have my husband read this post he will be more willing to tackle it :). Great job! I hope my house can have it soon!!!!!

Man, you said this was EASY??? I do not call that easy!! WOW...but the results are so nice. I have a ceiling like that in my sun room--however it is an old one. As I was reading your post I glanced up to see how they had done it. Mine is staggered....I never paid attention before!! We paid to have it re-painted three years ago because back in the 60's this house had had a fire in the attic. You could see the soot lines of the beams that were under the tongue and groove!! You can't see the beams, mind you, but it made soot-like shadows---weird. Anyways we decided to let the pros do it and it came out well. Yours looks very nice!!

That looks sooooo much better! I have the infamous popcorn as well and have planned to do this in at least one room, but it looks so awesome in your house I may have to expand my vision to more rooms.Denasweetpicklesandchocolate

This is such a fantastic idea! I have the ugly popcorn ceiling too and I want to do this badly! I was wondering, if you have done it in the bathroom? If so, have you had any problems with moisture and the plank wood?

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